Greer wipes the grin of Queensland's face but shines the spotlight on BWF
The Brisbane Writers Festival got off to a controversial start with guest speaker Germaine Greer saying that, “The ABS reports that 47 per cent of Queenslanders cannot read a newspaper, follow a recipe, make sense of time tables or understand instructions on a medicine bottle.” She argued that a "good time" could not be had at a writers festival with such statistics being an underlying truth. Apparently Greer misrepresented the ABS' findings - according to State Library of Queensland representative Jane Cowell. But she certainly got the job done of getting BWF on the national agenda, if briefly, by being the "provocative discussion-starter" that the festival's director Jane O'Hara had wanted. Greer's comments have, not surprisingly, upset a lot of people (mainly Queenslanders), but there is a serious side. Concerns have been raised that her comments only deepen the shame for people who do have literacy problems. Author Nick Earls, however, wh...